What we have here - apart from one of Sir Ridley Scott’s finest movies - is a distaff version of Easy Rider.Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper are now Thelma Yvonne Dickinson and Louise Elizabeth Sawyer. They take off in a 1966 Ford Thunderbird convertible for a two day breakin the mountains that takes them, not in search of but deep into America.ToHell but not back.

As for the Jack Nicholson’sscene-stealing and career-making role, we have Brad Pitt as JD. “Well I may be an outlaw, darlin', but you're the one stealing my heart.”

All of which was a great surprise because at firstglance, even with two other instant classics, Alien and Blade Runner, behind him, Scott was not the obvious choice for what for whatUS critic Kenneth Turan would call “a neo-feminist road movie"while most American crackers saw it as simply beingabout two bitches in a car.

“Ihad cast a woman for what would be considered very mucha male part in Alien [and he listedSigourney Weaveragain as Thelma or Louise], so… people were beginning to look at me saying, ‘Here’s a director who supports the process of femaleequality’. “

He never intended to direct to direct T & L, simply wear his producer’s hat.In from Kentucky (and before that, Texas), Callie Khouri created her duo- toxic feminists, said some - in 1979, Scott bought the scriptin 1980- for her to make a directing debut with.No studio in a town wanted that deal. Who she? What she done? MGM finally agreed to back the project but decreed that afirst-timer wasn’t insuranceenough for the hefty budget. Even if she had written the damned thing.

The suits wanted names. Star names.John Carpenter, for example. . Brian De Palma (a star name?). Or, Sidney Lumet.Ultimately,Ridley decided to confirm his belief in Callie and to safeguard her scenario (she finally directed her Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood in 2001, leading to a surprise offer for the thirdHarry Potter chapter) by adding directing to his producing gig.

And a classic was born.

THELMA

Hey Louise, better slow down, I'll just die if we get

caught over a speeding ticket… I mean in broad

daylight and everything?

LOUISE

I want to put some distance between us and the

scene of our last god damned crime!

The movie was dueto be shot in 1981 for an ’83 release.Callie and Ridley agreed on Natalie Wood and Tuesday Weld as T & L.Perfect!Then, Natalie drowned in November 29, and Tuesday was too crushed to go on without her.

OK, send in the reserves…First,Michelle Pfeiffer-Jodie Foster.No? Well how about: Frances McDormand-Holly Hunter?

Next, enter: Goldie Hawn-Meryl Streep and a big battle - not between them, but Goldie’s agents. Within the mighty CAAgency.

Bossman Mike Ovitz felt “very strongly,” that Goldieshouldnot doit,for the quite preposterous reasonthat it was too closeto her first switch from comedy to drama, Steven Spielberg’s 1973 road-movie, Sugarland Express. (Isn’t that what stars do, make similar movies) .Ron Meyer, CAA's #2, hadtalked Goldie into a salary-cut for Bird On A Wire. That did well, so she issued her edict: “Make it happen.”

He tried but, as Goldie agreed, “no bells rang.”Or not until… well, Goldie had always wanted to work with La Streep.And, apparently, or allegedly,vice-versa. So, yeah, Ron, make that happen.Again, he couldn’t.Meryl was off onanother film and having waited nine years, Ridley had a start date and wasn’t tohang about twiddling his storyboards for another six weeks.Not even for queen Meryl.

Exit: Meryl. And Goldie, too!She would not make the movie without her, despite it being important her enough to want it to happen before Streep momentarily entered the frame. Instead, they joined forces for a piece of demeaning schlock fromgimmicky director Robert Zemeckis, DeathBecomes Her, 1992. Owch!

Cher turned it down, “It was a much rougher when I got it.It probably would’ve beena good movie to do.Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. I'm glad Susan did it.”

In early drafts, T & L were the same age… which explains why, at times, certain actresses were considered for either role - Ellen Barkin, Glenn Close, Anjelica Huston, Sigourney Weaver. Indeed, when finding Louise took so long (until Ridley decided on an older woman in (ageless) Susan Sarandon) thatGeena Davis, having won Thelma, was askedto sign a contract agreeing toplay one or the other.

Which leaves uswith the part that made Brad Pitt a star… “Well, I've always believed that if done properly, armed robbery doesn't have to be an unpleasant experience.”

JD .Christopher Atkins, Kevin Bacon, Scott Baio, Alec Baldwin,Tom Cruise, Johnny Depp, Sean Penn, Christian Slater tested before the first choice forthe role was WilliamBaldwin, youngest of that band of brothers.He passed. (So did big brother Alec - the sap!),Billy preferred Backdraft, which Pitt had also tested for. So Billy was gone, Brad was free… andRidley Scott still chose someone else.ExceptGeorge Clooney (who had auditioned five times) was called back to another of his TV series that never caught fire (until ER, 1994-2009).

Therefore, Pitt won a second chance. So did two other guys (anyone who they were?)They alltested with Geena Davis - “the last one was so cute I kept messing up my lines.”

She then overheard Ridley and casting agent Lou DiGiamo discussing the other two. “Can I say something?” she asked. Of course. “The blond one.Duh!”

Ironically,Bad hadearlierbeen rejected- “too sweet” - for another guy named JD in Heathers.That roledidn’t help ChristianSlater as much as Callie Khouri’s JD boosted Pitt.(Both guys went onto glory in Tony Scott’s version of Quentin Tarantino’s script, True Romance, 1992.

Pitt and Clooney have been pals ever since, resulting in their Ocean’s 11/12/13capers. “I was really stuck doing a lot of bad TV at that time,” George recalled. “And I had auditioned and auditioned, and it got right down to Brad and I… And I just couldn’t watch that movie for a couple of years.When I saw it, I thought actually that was the right choice. He was really good in it, and I would have fucked it up somehow.”

“This is one I would love to get hold off,” Pitt said at the time.“A month went by andI found something else. I gotanother call about a month later…Ridley said he wanted a real sociopath… I was just in from Missouri, I hadda go home and look that up!’(Hardly, he’d justmajored in journalism at Missouri U). “Got a call on Friday and I wason the set Monday.”

For among other things, his first foray into a sex scene. “Geena was really sweet with me, me being very new to the game…One of the dilemmas an actor faces in those scenes is: What happens if the soldier starts to salute?”The answer, again, was Geena who turneddown Scott’s suggestion of anude body double. “Brad was more shy than I was. I did my best to protect him.”Susan Sarandon says the dailies ofthe sex scene (originally so lengthy, they were shot over two days) were just loved by the crew. “And there wasn’t any sound.”

Onto the memorable climax, what the late, great Chicago critic Roger Ebertcalled “the catharsis shot, the payoff, the moment when Thelma and Louise arrive at the truth that their whole journey has been pointed toward,” assit in the car, with a cliff edgeinfront andthe the Keitel PD behind.

THELMA

OK, then listen; let's not get caught.

LOUISE

What're you talkin' about?

THELMA

Let's keep goin'

LOUISE

What d'you mean?

THELMA (nods)

... Go!

LOUISE

You sure?

THELMA

Yeah.

And off they slam right into a Truffaut freeze-frame…Although, Ridley had mused abut Thelma pushing the younger woman out of the Thunderbird in the proverbial nick of.(Oh, Ridley!).

Not that the finale pleased everyone.Roger Ebert maintained that Scott and his editor, Tom Mount,botched it, the reason the Chicago Sun-Times criticgave the filmthree-anp-a-half stars, not four. “It’s unsettling to get involved in a movie that takes 128 minutes to bring you to a payoff that the filmmakers seem to fear. If Scott and Mount had let the last shot run an additional seven to ten seconds, and then held the fade to white for a decent interval, they would have gotten the payoff they deserved. Can one shot make that big of a difference? This one does.”

Callie Khourie was staggered that people saw it as suicide. “I don't even think of them as dead. To me, the ending was symbolic, not literal. We did everything possible to make sure you didn't see a literal death. You were left with the image of them flying. They flew away, out of this world and into the mass unconscious. Women who are completely free from all the shackles that restrain them have no place in this world. The world is not big enough to support them. They will be brought down if they stay here. They weren't going to be brought down. So let them go. I loved that ending and I loved the imagery. After all they went through I didn't want anybody to be able to touch them.”

Love it or loathe it,the ending has become part of Hollywood language. During the 2013 Cannes festival, Steven Soderbergh praised the way Michael Douglas and Matt Damon played gay lovers (Liberace and bis chauffeur) in Behind The Candelabra.“They knew they had to be Thelma & Louiseand jumping off the cliff or it doesn’t play.”